The Indian Army has traditionally been the fostering ground for many luminaries in sports and adventure activities. In fact, these activities are the bedrock of regimental soldiering. In order to create the esprit de corps, camaraderie, leadership qualities, self-confidence and perseverance to achieve the assigned mission despite the challenges, the army has encouraged sport and outdoor activities.
After independence, army sportsmen dominated in athletics and field games. Dhyan Chand and Shankar Lakshman (hockey), Milkha Singh and Sriram Singh (athletics), Narinder Kumar and M.S. Kohli (mountaineering) and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Olympic silver medallist, are a few of our legendary sportsmen from the armed forces. In the early 1950s, my father discovered the athlete in Milkha Singh, when he joined the EME Centre in Secunderabad as a recruit. Dad was his company commander and he nurtured young Milkha like a son. As kids we simply loved to see him running, and practically winning all the sprints at the station sports meets. In two years he rose to be our national champion in 400 metres, and thereafter made history at the Rome Olympics – and became known as ‘the flying Sikh’. Unfortunately, the army’s priority and focus of attention got totally reoriented to the operational side after the wars in 1962, 1965 and 1971. Besides, we needed a lot of funds for the creation of modern sports facilities, equipment, coaching and foreign exposure to produce international-level sportsmen. This was not forthcoming from any quarters. Consequently, the standard of sports deteriorated.
Realizing the need for government funding, during General Padmanabhan’s tenure as the chief, a case was taken up. ‘Mission Olympics’ was the name given to the long-term project to rejuvenate sports in the armed forces. Funds were released to create the infrastructure, procure equipment and coaches and give international exposure to our sportsmen. The results began showing from the Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne in 2006. Our performance further improved at the CWG at Delhi, and the at the Guangzhou Asiad. I inaugurated the Army Sports Institute at Pune and gave renewed impetus to Mission Olympics. Disciplines like shooting, boxing, wrestling and rowing received greater attention, as I believed we had better chances in them. I presented the COAS trophies for shooting and golf and had the inaugural tournaments for these games at Mhow and Delhi. It gives me great satisfaction to see these competitions being keenly contested each year.
The ‘Catch them young’ scheme was introduced by me, wherein the children of armymen were given an opportunity to compete in a few selected disciplines. The children who had the best potential were then given a sports scholarship and trained in Delhi. Their educational needs were also taken care of. A few of them have made a mark at the national level in just three or four years. Unfortunately, this scheme went into cold storage after my tenure, much to the disappointment of all ranks of the army. Soldiers who could not afford the cost of equipment and training of their children with potential in a sport, had some hope because of the ‘Catch them young’ scheme. In fact, I once went to one of these selection competitions. Young kids with their parents had come from army stations from as far away as Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram or Jammu and Kashmir. There was so much excitement in the air and a competitive spirit was palpable. In case funds were a problem, I am sure some way could have been found through government or corporate support. If we want to produce world champions, they have to be picked up at the age of ten or twelve years.
Mountaineering has always attracted me. It is true that very few senior officers have trained as mountaineers, and perhaps those who became mountaineers did not rise to high ranks. What greater fortune can one have than to learn the rudiments of climbing in the Himalayas from Tenzing Norgay. This legendary mountaineer, who had the unique honour of being the first man to climb the mighty Everest, along with Sir Edmund Hillary, was the director of field training when I did my basic and advanced mountaineering courses at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling in the 1960s. This experience and knowledge came in very handy for me later in life, while dealing with the challenges on our high-altitude border with China – along the LAC in Ladakh, Joshimath Sector and the northeast, and the AGPL or LoC in Siachen, Kargil and Kashmir regions. In our case, for reasons that are obvious, it is of vital importance to understand, particularly at the senior levels, the challenges posed by mountainous and high-altitude terrain in warfare. We learnt this lesson to our bitter cost during the Chinese aggression in 1962.
The army women’s successful Everest expedition flagged in by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and me in June 2005.
It was a great pleasure for me to flag off the ‘first’ women’s Everest expedition launched by the army on 18 March 2005. This expedition made history as for the first time, the Indian Army successfully put on the summit four courageous women – Captains Sipra Mazumdar and Ashwini Pawar, Cadet Tshering Ladol and trainee Dechen Lhamo – and five more members of the support team on 2 June 2005. This included Major (now Colonel) S.S. Shekhawat. This expedition used the northern route to climb the peak known as ‘Sagarmatha’, the Nepalese name of the Everest, or ‘Chomolungma’, the Goddess Mother of the World in Tibetan, and had to approach the peak from Lhasa in Tibet because of the disturbed conditions in Nepal.
Major D.J. Singh of the Maratha Light Infantry and his team on the summit of Everest.
It was also my desire that an expedition comprising officers and men from the Maratha Light Infantry should scale the Everest during my tenure as the chief. Accordingly, the selection and training of the best mountaineers of the regiment commenced nearly one year ahead. They trained hard in the Siachen glacier and attempted other peaks like ‘Bhagirathi’ (6,510 m) and ‘Mana’ (7,273 m). To ensure a balanced composition of the team some outstanding mountaineers from other units of the army were also included in the team. Lieutenant Colonel I.S. Thapa from 4 Maratha Light Infantry was the leader of this expedition, which had a total of twenty members. The team was flagged off on 28 March 2007 and their plan was to climb the Everest from the tougher north face, like the earlier women’s expedition of 2005. They put on the roof-top of the world a total of twelve army mountaineers and an equal number of sherpas on 15–16 May 2007. In the first successful summit attempt, Captain D.J. Singh, Subedar M. Khandagle, Havildars Tshering Angchok, Balwant Singh Negi, Amardev Bhatt and Sepoy Sachin Patil scaled the peak on the 15 May. The next day, another six climbers reached the summit. These were Havildars Nandkumar Jagtap, Dayanand Dhali, Ram Bahadur Mall, Mingmar Gurung, Tejpal Singh Negi and Khem Chand. Defence Minister A.K. Antony was there with me to flag in the expedition on 10 July 2007. I was happy that both these Everest expeditions had returned safely without any mishaps.